This invention relates generally to the art of communication systems. While the invention is particularly directed to a method and system for providing improved wireless number portability, and will be thus described with specific reference thereto, it will be appreciated that the invention may have usefulness in other fields and applications.
By way of background, the standard for wireless number portability has been produced by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and is set forth in TIA-765-A, which is incorporated by reference herein and is available from Global Engineering Documents, 15 Inverness Way East, Sales-C303B, Englewood, Colo., USA 80112-9649.
Per TIA-765-A, an NPreq (Number Portability Request) message is sent from a MSC (Mobile Switching Center) to a NPDB (Number Portability Database) on a per call basis for a portable number (a number within a portable NPA-NXX range). Now with FCC-mandated number portability, more and more numbers are being ported from one service provider to another. Once a number is ported, the corresponding NPA-NXX range becomes a portable range. Sooner or later, all NPA-NXX ranges become portable ranges and all numbers are going to be portable numbers, but they will not necessarily be ported numbers.
A Directory Number (DN) is a telephone network routing address for a subscriber terminal (or mobile station), often simply referred to as the telephone number. For a DN that can be called tens, hundreds, or even thousands times (e.g., business number) a day, especially during busy hours, if it is a portable number, then NPreq messages are repeatedly sent per call for the same portable number. The messages from the MSC to the NPDB take significant processing times at the MSC and at the NPDB, introduce call delay time while the MSC waits for the NPreq return result from the NPDB, increase traffic between the MSC and the NPDB, and increase costs for the service provider that owns the MSC (if the cost of the NPreq is charged to the service provider on a per message basis by the NPDB service provider).
The present invention contemplates a new and improved method and system that resolves the above-referenced difficulties and others, including reducing the number of NPreq messages sent from the MSC to the NPDB for calls to a portable number, improving system (MSC) performance (e.g., increase busy hour calls supported by the MSC), reducing network traffic and improving network performance, especially during busy hours, and saving service provider costs associated with sending NPreq messages to the NPDB.